Following the depression of the late ’70s and early ’80s, then the party high of the last half of the ’80s glitz, the ’90s was a time of rehab—a reality check of where we were as hot rodders. The decade saw some notable trends take root, some of which are still popular today. But as with any era in a magazine’s history, the ’90s also had a few “trends” that we wish we never had to experience.

Technologically, the ’90s saw the explosion in advanced electronic fuel injection (EFI). The OEs had gone to EFI for emissions and mileage reasons in the ’80s but the computers were still mysterious to hot rodders until computer technology exploded and savvy tuners figured out how to get in and work with them. Gone were the screwdrivers and hammers, replaced by laptops and software. Computer technology has advanced farther than anyone dreamed possible. In the automotive world, it allows near-infinite control of every engine and vehicle parameter, which in the hot rod realm has allowed turbochargers and superchargers to work exceptionally well in both street and all-out racing applications. That has also allowed advancement in turbo/blower technology to grow by leaps and bounds.

New cars started getting fast again and the Fox-body Mustang came into its own with rabid followers, racing series and magazines dedicated to the car, and plentiful parts that were cheap and made them really fast. It was a given that Mustang versus Camaro and Buick Grand National drag races sprung up across the country. The high-speed, open-road races also took off, led by the Pony Express and Silver State Challenge in Nevada. The early stages of Pro Touring began as well, with people building their muscle cars to handle, stop, and drive like a new performance cars, with modern creature comforts, too—made possible due to the modern electronics and overdrive transmissions that make it easy to build a fast car that was civil on the long haul.

We also saw the birth of the HOT ROD Power Tour™, still a yearly cross-country cruise that began with a small handful of cars and no sponsors and has progressed to today’s enormous event. You also saw Pro Street guys throw away their lawn chairs in favor of a real set of tools and spares and actually go race their 1,000-plus-hp machines, and thus was born the HOT ROD Fastest Street Car Shootout, a version of which is still very popular now, in the second decade of the new millennium.

This all came about from the boredom of building a car and not using it, other than to sit beside it at a car show. Near the end of the prior decade, Scott Sullivan showed us that you could have a show winner that was also fast and fully capable of being used for what it was: a car. Gray Baskerville and other street rod heroes started driving their works of art long distances to shows because it was fun. And isn’t that what hot rodding is really all about? A zeitgeist change occurred almost overnight in the hot rodding universe, and it was a lot of fun to be a part of, even if you were just watching from the cheap seats.

Of course, as we said earlier, there were some dark periods of the ’90s, namely Harleys, CARB, and imports. HOT ROD readers in the ’70s still wretch when they hear the word van, and readers in the ’90s have the same reaction to the word Harley. For a brief time in the middle of the decade, the advertising guys noticed that a lot of hot rodders also had Harley-Davidson motorcycles they liked to play with, and that made them think they could get ads from Harley and the bike parts makers, so they forced us to create a small section of the magazine devoted to the subject. The readers hated it with a passion and the ads never materialized, so thankfully the idea was eventually shuttered.

Then the California Air Resources Board (which essentially sets the automotive emissions rules for the rest of the country) got cocky and came after us again with a handful of ridiculous rules and programs. We built the Crusher Camaro to show them the folly of their political ways, but ultimately the magazine is based in the state of California, which has never been known for legislation that has any root in reality. Unfortunately, the rest of the country tends to follow their lead on this subject and it’s a continuous fight.

At the end of the decade, just as readers were starting to calm down from the Harley debacle, the staff became enamored of import cars from Japan and started pushing those. Editor Freiburger still sighs when you mention the Acura emblem he used for his editorial column photo in the early 2000s. The magazine and domestic aftermarket industry thankfully got their fill after the first few years of the 2000s and dropped the insanity, letting the import magazines cover it and going back to the basics of hot rodding. But the ’90s went out with imports raging at full steam.

What’s the one thing we should take out of the ’90s? That would be using your hot rod as something other than a shiny piece of sculpture to stare at, whether you race it, drive it cross-country, or just use it to get groceries every now and then. At its roots, a hot rod is just metal, rubber, and glass after all, lovingly redesigned, built, and driven to put a smile on its owner’s face. Thankfully, we still feel that way, and the ’90s led us down the path to get there.

January 1990

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If there was an avatar for the gearhead early ’90s, it’d be a pink Pro Street car, so natch, that’s what was on the cover of the first issue of the decade. The entire HOT ROD staff (minus Gray Baskerville, who was on the road) crowded in and around Hoss Nagel’s 1958 Corvette in a ’50s-style diner a guy had built in his back yard. Hoss is a big guy, so nobody gave him flak about the color, which inspired more than a few
people to paint their hot rods in Pepto Bismol hues in a time when pastel colors were the rage. The car is virtually unchanged today, 23-plus years after the cover was shot.

3/29January 1990

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April 1990

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Girls have always been part of HOT ROD, dating to the Parts With Appeal department in the earliest issues, but cheesecake went big time when Pat Ganahl introduced a swimsuit edition in 1987 and the resulting sales boom turned it into an annual deal. The 1990 “Sunsational Swimsuits” issue featured studio shots of cars with bathing-suit models along with artists’ sketches of traditional hot rodding scenes using the featured car. One of those was Dave Rosenberg’s 1946 Ford woodie with bombshell Trina Pia. Rosenberg owned the car then and now, and it’s proof of the timelessness of a resto-rod, which is a street rod with a stock body and most of the original trim. All it took was a change of wheels for this car to be in vogue today. Interesting note: In the ’90 issue, the photo of the interior was flopped, putting the steering wheel on the right side. In the days of film, that happened somewhat often when the slide was scanned upside-down.

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May 1990

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Here’s an example of a car morphing for the times. Darrell Larson’s chopped 1937 Ford humpback sedan with a 1940 nose appeared in the May 1990 issue in a feature called “Grand Larsony.” Over the next 18 years it moved around to different owners, got a two-tone black and orange paintjob, and ended up in the hands of Mike and Keiko Williams, who bought it at an auction. When it arrived at Mike’s home via truck, a strap had come loose and mangled the grille, door, and a few other areas. He had that fixed, then he and his sons rebuilt the drivetrain at their shop, Williams Hot Rods in Montgomery, Texas. When they got the car, they found an accordion file behind the seats with all of the car’s receipts, notes, and the HOT ROD feature in it. The paint is now House of Kolor Sunset Pearl over a peach base, PPG Black
on top, and PPG Vibrance sprinkled in green to tie into the green pinstripe. Mike explains, “The car has made a major evolution and journey since the late ’80s—with new interior, wheels, engine, trans,
suspension, paint, and interior since the original article, it is a diferent car. But the legacy that Darrell Larson started was honored in our restoration, and we painted the name Grand Larsony on the center console. I have tried to find Darrell and would love to show him his original creation.”

8/29May 1990

August 1990

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Before the Internet, where you can find any photo of any car any time you want, magazines sold huge with Readers’ Rides sections, showing the world what was happening in hometown America. The Aug. 1990 issue was packed full of readers’ rides and had a section devoted to “Terror Trucks,” and Danny Shafer’s 1956 Ford F-100 represented them on the cover. Fat Jack Robinson built the truck and Gray Baskerville fell in love with it after seeing it in The Rotund One’s shop. Late-model Corvette suspension made it trick and a 468ci Chevy made it quick. Fat Jack is best known for his Fat attack, drag-style 1946 Ford coupe (July 1985 issue) that helped put fat-fendered street rods on the map.

October 1991

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Young hot rodder and racer Roger Conley leaned over the fender of his 1967 Camaro to illustrate the Budget Power Combos cover theme for Oct. 1991. The car was built as a drag car with a big-block, but like many straightline-oriented muscle cars of the ’90s, it has slowly morphed into a Pro Touring, handling-focused ride. That began in 1995 with a swap to a small-block. It currently has a 355 with MSD atomic eFI, a six-speed, Detroit Speed suspension, Baer brakes, and 17x11 five-spokes in the mini-tubbed rear wheelwells. Roger now works for Racepak (Racepak.com), helping racers and street guys with their Racepak dataloggers and digital dashes.

April 1992

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Mike Dietzen’s 1979 Mercury Capri Fox-body from the April ’92 issue mixed both the Pro Street and Dare to be Different themes of the day with a super-bright paintjob (in a factory 1971 Porsche color called
Raspberry Red) that he did himself at home. It looks the same now, but Mike says he’s changed a lot in the past couple decades, adding a FAST XFI fuel injection system, Fogger nitrous system, Ridetech Shockwave bags, Wilwood brakes, and Billet Specialties wheels in place of the original Center Lines. He drives it everywhere, including at the 2009 HOT ROD Power Tour™.

12/29April 1992

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June 1992

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Dennis Varni’s 1929 Ford roadster is one of those legendary cars, starting with its use on the cover of the famed Sept. 1973 Rod & Custom Tire Test issue. In the early ’90s, Varni decided to have Boyd Coddington’s shop refresh it with a Li’l John Buttera–inspired look. The body was heavily altered by Ron Covell to change the dimensions and smooth it all out, Greg Turetto built a trick custom chassis, and the engine was a stout, art Chrisman/Cub Barnett-built 406ci y-block with a B&M miniblower. The car was the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster winner for 1992. Impressively, it then embarked upon a road trip from California to Indy alongside Boyd’s wild Alumacoupe—and a handful of other cars—as covered in Gray Baskerville’s “Great Indy-and-Back Boogie” in the Oct. 1992 issue.

15/291973 Rod and Custom

August 1992

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By the time of the Aug. 1992 issue, Troy Trepanier was a known car builder, but had not yet outgrown the “Troy Boy” nickname. His 1966 Chevelle Pro Street car had appeared in the magazine by then, and his 1960 Impala appeared on the Sept. ’90 cover and was also HOT ROD’s Hot Rod of the Year. But it was the 1950 Buick called Bumongous that landed his face on the cover of the Aug. 1992 issue. It turned out to be his penultimate Pro Street car. In 2013, Troy celebrates 25 years in HOT ROD magazine, and Glenn Allen now owns the car.

17/29August 1992

Camaro Rodding

The first Camaro street machine on HOT ROD’s cover was Nov. 1976, and ever since then the mag has been accused of having too many Camaros. The ’90s was the most prevalent time for that. As an average over the decade, the readers had a 25 percent chance of seeing a Camaro on the cover of their latest issue.

February 1993

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Roger Conley did an encore performance of his Oct. 1991 cover pose with yet another orange Camaro, this one a 1968, on the Feb. 1993 issue. Today it has a full-tube chassis, twin-turbo 540, and Jefco planetary transmission. It made 1,000 hp to the tires on 91-octane pump gas, has a 10-gallon cell so he can drive it on the street, and is all steel except for a ’67 Yenkostyle ’glass hood. He has eyes on HOT ROD Drag Week™ with a goal of running in the 6s at 200-plus as soon as he gets the ’cage updated.

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May 1993

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The significant thing here is not so much the car, but the owner: Jeff Smith, who has been the editor of Car Craft (twice), HOT ROD, and Chevy High Performance magazines. He’s an insatiable Chevelle guy and has owned this 1966 for 20-plus years. It was white when it was on the cover (painted monochrome by Scott Sullivan) and became his ex-wife’s car before Jeff got it back. Car Craft recently did a paint-your- car-at-home story, hence the unintentionally suede orange paint. With a small-block and stick, it runs low-11s and is a driver.

March 1995

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The 1967 Crusher Camaro is HOT ROD’s most enduring project car, having been in the fleet for 20 years. It was initially purchased for $700 (as seen in black and white), swiped from the jaws of a California car-crushing program, and built to prove that you can have a smog-friendly street machine. That concept went out the door when the Crusher was changed into a Pro Touring car with a 632ci aluminum big-block, and again in its latest iteration with an 8-71-blown, 489ci Rat in ’70s street-machine style.

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May 1995

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Racing at the Bonneville Salt Flats has gone in and out of vogue for the mainstream, but these days it’s hotter than ever, with many big-name companies and car builders seeking fame by running there. Some try it in street-legal cars. Jack Chisenhall of Vintage air was way ahead of that curve in our May 1995 issue when his Cool 200 1953 Studebaker ran out the Bonneville’s top end at 240 mph with the air conditioning on. Power came from a Donnie Anderson-built, 705-inch huge-block. Oh yeah, and we rode in it on the complete 1997 Power Tour™ with the air cranked and ZZ Top blarin’.

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January 1998

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To commemorate HOT ROD magazine’s 50th anniversary, we had the pros build a modern version of Regg Schlemmer’s 1927 T that owned El Mirage in 1947 and graced the magazine’s very first cover in Jan. 1948. It was Chip Foose’s idea and design, Roy Brizio Street Rods built it, Boyd spun the wheels, and Art Himsl laid down the white pearl and red candy flames (Schlemmer’s car was black and yellow, but you couldn’t tell in the all-black-and-white magazines of 1948). It was a foldout cover for the biggest-ever, 228-page Jan. 1998 issue. This car is part of the collection of the Petersen Automotive Museum.

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The dirty dry lakes of SoCal have had second-string status ever since the first Bonneville Nationals in 1949, when media coverage began to focus on the salt flats. HOT ROD went back to its roots in the late 90s when staffer Will Handzel drove the BMR Racing 1932 Ford coupe at El Mirage and wrote about it in the Jan. 1998 issue. BMR is Berg, Mcalister, and Robinson—Don Berg Sr., the late proprietor of Berg Hardware in Pasadena, California, since 1923; local hot rodder alan Mcalister, who has owned the ’32 since he was a teen; and Doug Robinson, longtime proprietor of Horsepower engineering and Top Fuel racer of the ’60s. The coupe has set a bunch of records on the dirt and at the salt, mostly with a GMC inline six, but now with an Ardun flathead. The team also built a Bonneville 1932 roadster a few years ago that appeared in HOT ROD.

April 1999

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For decades, it was verboten for HOT ROD to tread in the dirty waters of serious low-buckery. The ice was partially broken with the Eastwood & Barakat 1932 Tudor cover car in 1982, and then Marlan Davis’ Junkyard Dog Oldsmobile project in 1984. The ice busted open and plunged to the bottom of the dirtcheap lake with David Freiburger’s Project Cheap Thrills 1968 Dodge Dart in 1994. By the end of the decade, junkyard stories were selling magazines, and primered cover cars became OK. Taking a clue from Car Craft, HOT ROD designed this April 1999 cover around local racer and photographer Mike Morgan’s 1969 Nova with staffer Steve Magnante—in his “The Character” outfit—hanging out the window. It started of as an April Fool’s joke but turned into a fairly good selling issue. Mike still races and drives the Nova.